Ferrari have played down the importance of their radical new nose cone design and have said that there are other new aerodynamic parts on the F2008 which play as equally important a role in the speed of the car as the new nose.
Talking to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, chief designer Nicholas Tombazis explained, “It is not something revolutionary that will make us two seconds quicker. It is simply an aerodynamic development like others that, although they may be less evident, are maybe more important.
“It is an idea we have been working on for a little while, but it wasn t one of the fundamental points of the F2008 project as people may think it is. Actually, the car has race well without it too.â€
Tombazis also explained some of the reasons why the new nose is effective.
“It allows you to control the airflow on the front wing more easily, with benefits for the components behind it such as the diffuser and the rear wing. The driver will feel an increase of aerodynamic load meaning he can go quicker in the curves. But this is also the result of other things that we introduced in the Montmelo test session and that are not visible.â€